Our minds need truth and our souls need beauty. Thankfully, the truth of God is always beautiful, even if it is hard to swallow. Sometimes, theologians wax long and multiply words, which is an understandable hazard of trying to capture the infinite in the finite. Poetry has the power to capture our attention with an economy of words. Thus, when I find poetic lines that concisely capture the complexity of Christian theology, I mark them with dog ears and try to pass them along.

I used to think that I was allergic to networking in any and all forms, but then I realized that when I share literature, I am networking my living friends with my dead ones. I hope you learn to love my old poetry friends the way I do. They have helped me hold truth and beauty together and pointed me to the heart of God.

A Shadow & A Shining

The dual nature of the Christian is a significant part of Christian theology. Martin Luther used the Latin phrase “simil justus et peccator” to explain that the believer is simultaneously righteous and a sinner. The Apostle Paul speaks of a similar reality in his letter to the Galatians: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5: 17). George MacDonald, the Scottish writer and pastor, poetically captures this complex reality in a simple line from a poem in his book The Diary of An Old Soul: “We are a shadow and a shining, we!”

Inserted into Him

Union with Christ is one of the soaring and stunning theological realities believers spend their lives trying to unpack. The Apostle Paul tries to capture it in words in many of his letters. He wanted the Colossians to understand the glorious mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1: 27) and sought to remind them “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 3). To the Galatians, Paul sought to explain his own union with Christ saying the following: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2: 20).

Christ himself sought to capture this reality through the picture of abiding that John recorded in the fifteenth chapter of his gospel. In his poem “On Christmas Day” Thomas Traherne captures the beauty of union with Christ:

“Let pleasant Branches still be seen
Adorning thee, both quick and green;
And, which with Glory better suits,
Be laden all the Year with Fruits;
Inserted into Him,
For ever spring.”

Blood & Wine

Substitutionary atonement is one of the most foundational Christian theological realities. As Paul captures in his second letter to the Corinthians, Christ took upon our sin that we might take on his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5: 21). Poet-pastor George Herbert poetically captures this complex reality in his a couple lines from his poem “The Agony”:

“Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood, but I, as wine.”

When my souls longs to hold theological realities in short handles of beauty, I find my soul holding on to these snippets of poetry. May your day be filled with truth and beauty, theology and poetry!